Insilico Medicine Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Q&A: How Insilico Medicine’s AI identified a new IPF drug target in record time

Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a devastating lung disease affecting millions with increasing incidence, may have a new treatment hope thanks to a novel inhibitor of TNIK, a kinase newly implicated in fibrosis, identified using generative AI drug discovery platforms in just 18 months.

Researchers at Insilico Medicine, along with international collaborators, harnessed the power of AI platforms PandaOmics and Chemistry42 to make a breakthrough discovery. Nature Biotechnology recently published the group’s findings, showcase the potential of AI to accelerate drug discovery. The scientists identified TNIK as a promising therapeutic target for fibrotic diseases and developed INS018_055, a potent TNIK inhibitor. Preclinical models demonstrated INS018_055’s superior anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory effects compared to current treatments.

Beyond fibrotic diseas…

Insilico Medicine’s latest AI-engineered drug ISM5411 could provide a novel approach for treating IBD

Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D.

Capping off a busy 2023, Insilico Medicine has announced a potentially first-in-class oral PHD inhibitor for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). ISM5411 is the fifth AI-backed drug candidate from Insilico Medicine to reach clinical stages.

ISM5411 targets prolyl hydroxylase domain (PHD) enzymes via modulation of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway, which is involved in cellular response to low oxygen levels. By inhibiting PHD, ISM5411 aims to stabilize HIF, thereby enhancing the expression of genes that help protect the gut lining and reduce inflammation.

AI’s role in ISM5411’s development

To develop ISM5411, InSilico tapped its AI platform, Pharma.AI. This involved deploying Chemistry42, a generative AI engine, which created the structure-based small molecule based on the PHD target protein structure. “After obtaining a series of lead compound…

Insilico Medicine taps AI to nominate small molecule inhibitor ISM9274 as a preclinical cancer therapy

Clinical-stage AI company Insilico Medicine has nominated a novel small molecule inhibitor known as ISM9274 as a preclinical candidate for cancer treatment.

The company used its PandaOmics AI platform to analyze genomic data from more than 90 tumor types and identified CDK12 as a promising target for multiple cancers including triple-negative breast cancer, lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Next, it used its AI drug discovery engine Chemistry42 to design ISM9274 to selectively inhibit CDK12 and CDK13. Preclinical studies showed ISM9274 demonstrated potent antiproliferative activity across 60 cancer cell lines representing 13 tumor types. It also showed efficacy in animal models as both monotherapy and in combination with other therapies.

“Our target discovery philosophy is to find an optimal balance between commercial tractability, novelty and confidence,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine.

The company’s AI platfo…

CEO: Insilico on how AI can ‘imagine the perfect molecules’ for drug targets

Insilico’s AI-driven drug discovery process, showcased in their AI-powered robotics lab [Image courtesy of Insilico Medicine]

Insilico Medicine, an AI-based biotech startup, announced details of their first AI-designed drug candidate to enter human clinical trials. INS018_055 is an experimental treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare lung disease. Through their Insilico AI-driven drug discovery platform, they discovered and designed INS018_055 in just 30 months, significantly faster than the industry average. Phase 1 trials of INS018_055 have been completed in New Zealand and China, showing a favorable safety profile. Insilico plans to launch Phase 2 trials in 2023 to further evaluate the drug’s efficacy and tolerability. If successful, INS018_055 could provide a new treatment option for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The trial results also demonstrate the potential of AI to accele…

Insilico’s AI-discovered INS018_055 graduates to phase 2

Roughly a year ago, Insilico Medicine announced that it had dosed the first patient in a phase 1 study of INS018_055, an AI-discovered, first-in-class small molecule inhibitor. Now, the company has progressed to the next stage, launching a phase 2 study for the drug candidate.

Insilico, a founding member of NVIDIA Inception, developed its AI drug-discovery platform on NVIDIA GPUs. Inception is a complimentary program that provides startups with technical training and AI platform support.

The discovery of INS018_055 was the result of combining multiple technologies. Insilico’s proprietary Pharma.AI platform incorporates AI models trained on massive amounts of data. Insilico’s target identification platform, PandaOmics, discovered a novel target. Then Insilico’s generative chemistry platform, Chemistry42, designed the molecule’s structure. In addition, these AI systems rely on machine learning techniques like deep generative models, reinforcement lear…

Insilico Medicine wins IND approval for AI-designed USP1 inhibitor for cancer trials in U.S. and China

Insilico Medicine has made a significant breakthrough with its AI-designed USP1 inhibitor, ISM3091. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Insilico’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for this promising drug, marking a significant milestone for AI-assisted drug discovery.

“The FDA’s acceptance of our IND for ISM3091 signifies that the FDA recognizes its potential value, and we can now open clinical trial sites across multiple centers and begin to study ISM3091 in human patients who may benefit from novel therapies,” said Dr. Sujata Rao, senior vice president, head of global clinical development at Insilico Medicine.

The company’s discovery and development of drug candidates, including ISM3091 and ISM001-055, which has also progressed to the clinic, showcases the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of AI in accelerating drug development. ISM001-055, a potentially first-in-class small molecule inhibitor for idiopathi…

10 pioneering companies implementing AI in drug discovery, development and beyond

[NicoElNino/Adobe Stock]

The pharma industry is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline drug discovery and development, although adoption remains early. The field, however, is rapidly expanding. The global AI in drug discovery market was worth about $1.1 billion last year but could grow at a 30% clip from 2023 to 2030, according to Grand View Research.

In the years to come, AI could find use to discover an array of drug targets while improving drug developers’ ability to design molecules based on fine-grained criteria. Here, we spotlight several companies exploring the use of AI in drug discovery and drug development.

1. Exscientia

Oxford, UK–based Exscientia (Nasdaq: EXAI) has pioneered AI in small-molecule drug design. The company has expanded its AI-based platform to develop novel therapeutic antibodies through generative AI design. In early 2020, the company reported the first AI-d…

Using AlphaFold, Insilico Medicine produces AI drug discovery in record time

This is the AI-powered autonomous robotics lab called Life Star in Suzhou that Insilico opened in January. [Insilico Medicine]

Capitalizing on AI drug discovery, an international group of researchers employed DeepMind’s deep learning-driven AlphaFold protein structure database to swiftly design and synthesize a potential hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) drug in only 30 days.

The AI drug discovery project consisted of Insilico Medicine, the University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium and researchers including Nobel laureate Michael Levitt. The team applied AlphaFold to Insilico’s end-to-end AI-powered drug discovery platform, Pharma.AI. With the integration of the biocomputational engine PandaOmics and the generative chemistry engine Chemistry42, the AI drug discovery project identified a novel treatment pathway for HCC and developed a potent inhibitor based on a predicted protein structure. Read more

Using AlphaFold, Insilico Medicine produces AI drug discovery in record time

This is the AI-powered autonomous robotics lab called Life Star in Suzhou that Insilico opened in January. [Insilico Medicine]

Capitalizing on AI drug discovery, an international group of researchers employed DeepMind’s deep learning-driven AlphaFold protein structure database to swiftly design and synthesize a potential hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) drug in only 30 days.

The AI drug discovery project consisted of Insilico Medicine, the University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium and researchers including Nobel laureate Michael Levitt. The team applied AlphaFold to Insilico’s end-to-end AI-powered drug discovery platform, Pharma.AI. With the integration of the biocomputational engine PandaOmics and the generative chemistry engine Chemistry42, the AI drug discovery project identified a novel treatment pathway for HCC and developed a potent inhibitor based on a predicted protein structure. Read more

Insilico Medicine hooks up with Arvinas

Insilico Medicine (Hong Kong) has entered into an R&D pact with Arvinas (NSDQ:ARVN) to explore applications of Insilico’s AI technology to PROTACs.

By regulating protein function, PROTACS can optimize the sensitivity to drug-resistant targets, as an article in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy notes

Insilico and Arvinas will partner in designing treatment modalities for current and next-generation targets.

Founded in 2013, Arvinas is a pioneer of targeted protein degradation technology and related therapeutic applications.

Insilico Medicine was founded in 2014 to develop an AI-based platform for pharma and biotech.

“We look forward to collaborating with Arvinas in this innovative field and to building a lasting relationship,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO of Insilico Medicine, in a statement.